SIX ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS PARENTS MUST ASK ABOUT THEIR KIDS’ SCHOOLS, from Susan L.M. Goldberg at the PJM Parenting section, including:

4. Is the academic program geared towards academics or political messaging?

In fifth grade we were introduced to the concept of “multiculturalism”. My school district felt the best way to introduce us to other cultures was by partnering with another elementary school in the district for special programming on cultures of third world nations. This boiled down to one primarily white school meeting up with another primarily white school, splitting into carefully crafted groups that included at least one student of color, and watching a bunch of white teachers shake rain sticks at us to demonstrate the culture of Africa. Sound highly hypocritical? It gets better.

We were told to work together to create group names. The “person of color” in our group was a goof off from my own class. When he suggested a name I felt was stupid, I as much told him so. Everyone else agreed. When the teachers came around to see how we were doing, the “person of color” accused me of bullying him. “That’s not nice, Susan. We have to respect other people’s cultures. I think that’s a great name for the group. That will be your name.” The name was “The Orange Juices.” Totally multicultural and reflective of his native culture, I’m sure.

Contrast that experience to the one I had in my gifted classes led by a very old school teacher, Mrs. Lenox. Our first class focused on learning Bloom’s Taxonomy, a method of study that would guide how we would approach every topic over the course of the year. Not only did she lay out topics of study, she explained the method she’d be using to teach. Everyone was on the same page from day one and it made sense.

If you want your child to grow up to be an independent thinker and a leader, take a look at the curriculum with this question in mind: Is your child being taught to learn in an objective fashion, or play political ball in a bureaucratic system?

Well, playing political ball in a far left bureaucratic system is what teachers do, so it’s no wonder they want to pass that “skill” onto the kids they indoctrinate teach. As Glenn noted in his 2014 book, The New School, it’s not a coincidence that the typical school is modeled after the factories of the early 20th century and is designed to churn out cogs to fill their assembly lines, even if there are less and less of them in the US. “Thus, the traditional public school: like a factory, it runs by the bell. Like machines in a factory, desk and students are lined up in orderly rows. When shifts (classes) change, the bell rings again, and the students go to the next class. And within each class, the subjects are the same, and the examinations are the same, regardless of the characteristics of the individual students.”